Examination of the advanced report for real GDP growth for second quarter 2009, which shows a -1.0%  growth rate, reveals that the only area of growth in economic activity was in government expenditures… no other sector grew at all…unless we count the .1% growth in the service sector. But you really can’t count that service sector growth since it probably resulted from government spending too!  So, this is cause for celebration? Right, like we can build a sustainable growth economy on government expenditures financed by government debt…

UPDATE:

Econompicdata.com points out that with the BEA’s new revisions to the entire GDP database, the -1.0% should be viewed really as -2.3% —apples to apples…

In a nutshell, forget about the 1% Real GDP figure. There were massive revisions to old GDP prints. Looking at nominal data below, old figures were revised down 1.3% on a cumulative basis from Q2 2007 through last quarter. Thus, rather than a 1% decline from Q1, the new data point is closer to a 2.3% decline from the previously unrevised Q1 09 number.